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Yoel Romero Feels Alex Pereira Bouts May Have Led To Israel Adesanya's Loss Against Sean Strickland
Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

Yoel Romero Feels Alex Pereira Bouts May Have Led To Israel Adesanya's Loss Against Sean Strickland

Originally posted on MMA News  |  Last updated 10/2/23

Yoel Romero has suggested that being stopped by Alex Pereira at UFC 281 may have contributed to Israel Adesanya’s recent loss to Sean Strickland.

“The Last Stylebender” suffered the first loss of his MMA career in a failed bid to become a two-division champion at UFC 259 when he challenged Jan Błachowicz for the light heavyweight belt.

Adesanya returned to the middleweight division after his decision loss to Błachowicz and defended his belt three more times to bring his total number of title defenses to five, but he’s now suffered two losses within the last year to Pereira and Strickland.

Yoel Romero Questions If Israel Adesanya Was "Scared" After Loss To Alex Pereira 

Romero challenged Adesanya for the middleweight belt in 2020, and “Soldier of God” recently weighed in on Strickland’s upset victory to win the title at UFC 293.

"What I think, is right now when you have a fight and you take the damage, like [against] Alex, now Izzy has a little problem, not too much,” Romero told Kanpai Media (h/t Sportskeeda for the transcription). “That's what I'm thinking, now he's scared a little bit.”

The UFC 281 matchup between Pereira and Adesanya came with a significant amount of history attached to it after “Poatan” had won their previous two meetings in the kickboxing ring. Pereira pulled off a stunning fifth-round finish to win the middleweight title at Madison Square Garden, but at UFC 287 Adesanya was able to stop the Brazilian in the second round and reclaim his belt.

The 34-year-old’s underwhelming performance against Strickland at UFC 293 has resulted in a wide variety of takes from various members of the MMA community. Adesanya’s team has already called for an immediate rematch, but it remains to be seen if the UFC will choose to go that route considering the former champion already had a two-fight series with Pereira within the last year.

Please provide transcription credit with a link to this article if you use any of these quotes.

This article first appeared on MMA News and was syndicated with permission.

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